48 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



fortnight, and then feed skhn-milk, the calf's stomach will 

 begin to digest dry grain. I think it is much better to feed 

 it dr}^, because they use their saliva, and it helps them to 

 digest the food better. 



Question. Would you give spring calves meal in the 

 winter ? 



Mr. BowDiTCH. I think that we err more in giving them 

 too little than we do in giving them too much. I think that 

 for one calf that is over-fed there are hundreds that do not 

 get enough. 



Question. How much meal is good for a calf? 



Mr. BowDiTCH. If calves are well fed, I think, they are 

 not inclined to over-eat. In my calves' pens I almost 

 always find a little food left that they do not care to eat. I 

 feed a mixture of bruised oats and oil-meal ; and, if they 

 would eat a little corn-meal with it, I would let them have 

 it. But I think if you gave a calf all it would eat, it would 

 not eat a pint a day, if it had plenty of other things. 



Question. Would not a calf that was dropped last 

 spring eat more than that ? 



Mr. Bowditch. Yes, sir. A calf that was eight months 

 old would eat more than that ; but I do not think a quart of 

 .corn-meal would hurt a calf of that age, or a little more, 

 possibly. 



Question. Many of our people feed large amounts of 

 shorts and fine feed : would that be any better for a calf than 

 Indian meal? 



Mr. Bowditch. I think it would be. I think a mixture 

 of the two would be better still. But I have often thought 

 ■of what my friend Mr. Thorne said of linseed-meal, — that it 

 was not only the best food, but it was tlie best medicine. I 

 have never known an animal of any age to be hurt by lin- 

 seed-meal in any quantity that it would eat. 



Question. If a calf is brought up on a cow to the age 

 of three or four months, is there not danger of re-action when 

 the calf is taken from the cow, and put on other food ? 



Mr. Bowditch. They will begin to eat when they have 

 a wet-nurse by their side all the time quicker than they will 

 if they are left alone. I did not mean to be understood that 

 I take a calf off at three or four months old. When I put 

 two calves on a new milch cow, she will give enough milk 



